Everything! Chickens are very curious little creatures. They love to explore every little change or sound. When I stopped to visit with them today, The Girls all gathered around until they figured out that I was empty-handed. Except for my camera. This little girl (Hannah tells me her name is Sunny) came up to check out my camera.

Curious Chicken

She was very curious!

Very Curious Chicken

This one (Willow, Hannah tells me) jumped right in and pecked my camera lens.

Another curious bird

The reason for my sojourn at the coop was to watch The Girls play in the leaves.

All season I’ve pondered the dilemma of what to do with the chicken run and how to keep The Girls from walking around in pooey muck. Then I read a post on Community Chicken about lining the run with leaves. Why didn’t I think of that? We live in the middle of the woods. The back 40 is full of Maple trees. The answer to my dilemma was right there in plain sight.

So this morning I spent an hour or so raking up frozen leaves from the woods and dumping them into the run. The Girls were in chicken heaven. They spent the entire day scratching through the leaves. I didn’t see them up on their roost once. They must be very tired chickens tonight.

leaf bedding in the chicken run

While they were foraging through the leaves, I couldn’t help but notice how cute their chicken bottoms are. They kind of remind me of old-fashioned ruffled pantaloons!

frilly chicken bottoms